Location and event triggered notification services

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides for delivering information, such as a notification or other content, to a select communication device when defined event and location criteria are satisfied. A profile is established to define the event and location criteria along with a method for delivering the information. Typically, the receipt of event indicia indicating the occurrence of an event is compared with the event criteria in the profile. When the event indicia satisfies the event criteria, location indicia is gathered and compared with the defined location criteria. Alternatively, a trigger corresponding to location is received and compared with the location criteria before determining whether an event corresponding to the event criteria is satisfied. When both the event occurrence and location indicia match the event and location criteria, the information is sent to the appropriate communication device.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to providing information, and inparticular to providing information in light of select location andevent criteria.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The expansion of Internet service, in particular relating to mobiledevices, has led to services capable of providing information on aperiodic basis or upon the occurrence of an event. For example, amessage may be sent to a web-enabled device when a stock price reaches aselect value, or periodically to provide an update for a particularsporting event. Unfortunately, these services typically require veryspecific definitions for the notifications or content requested. Theresult is an unfriendly service requiring very specific configuration.Further, much of the time the requested information is sent in anuntimely manner based on the requestor's location.

For example, weather updates and alerts for a user's hometown may beunnecessary when the user is on vacation or out of town on business.Similarly, stock quotes and sports scores may not be welcome on a user'smobile telephone while the user is at work, but are preferable only whenthe user is driving home or having lunch. Existing services fail todefine notification and content services based on a user's location andthe occurrence of an event. Therefore, there is a need for a way toprovide information to a requester based on the requestor's location andthe occurrence of an event triggering the potential need to deliver theinformation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides for delivering information, such as anotification or other content, to a select communication device whendefined event and location criteria are satisfied. A profile isestablished to define the event and location criteria along with amethod for delivering the information. Typically, the receipt of eventindicia indicating the occurrence of an event is compared with the eventcriteria in the profile. When the event indicia satisfies the eventcriteria, location indicia is gathered and compared with the definedlocation criteria. Alternatively, a trigger corresponding to location isreceived and compared with the location criteria before determiningwhether an event corresponding to the event criteria is satisfied. Whenboth the event occurrence and location indicia match the event andlocation criteria, the information is sent to the appropriatecommunication device.

Location indicia may be derived from any number of sources, includingglobal positioning system (GPS) devices, an electronic mobile locationcenter (EMLC), home or visitor location registers within a mobilenetwork, or mobile terminals themselves. Depending on the desiredapplication, the location of a mobile terminal, user, associate of auser, or any other entity or individual may be used to help trigger theprovision of a notification or content delivery to a selectcommunication device. Thus, the location information may pertain to theuser, a user's device, or another individual device remote from theuser. In essence, a location process is used to identify the location ofa defined entity. The location may be determined on a periodic basis orupon the triggering of an event that may or may not be associated withthe location of the entity. An event occurrence may be time based,location based, user initiated, or initiated by an external medium, suchas a mobile terminal, communication control devices within thecommunication network, or an event service.

A content service may be used to provide content when select event andlocation indicia correlate with event and location criteria defined by aprofile. The content may include any type of information desired by auser and defined in the profile. Notably, certain applications accordingto the present invention may only provide notifications defined in aprofile or provided with an event trigger, and therefore, would not needthe services of a remote content service.

Based on select criteria, the present invention is capable of deliveringinformation, such as notifications and content, to any number ofdevices, which are typically serviced by a circuit-switched network.These devices may include, but are not limited to, traditional land linetelephones, computers, mobile terminals, such as personal digitalassistants (PDAs), mobile telephones, pagers, and the like. In additionto devices serviced by circuit-switched networks, wirelesspacket-switched devices, such as properly configured mobile telephones,may communicate with a traditional packet-switched network via wirelesspacket-switched networks. In the latter case, information iscommunicated between the wireless packet-switched device and devices onthe packet-switched network without conversion to a circuit-switchedformat, such as the traditional time-division multiplexing (TDM).

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the presentinvention and realize additional aspects thereof after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiments inassociation with the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part ofthis specification illustrate several aspects of the invention, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is an illustration representing a communication environmentaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block representation of an application server according toone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block representation of an audio browser configuredaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a communication flow diagram for a first illustrative exampleof the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a communication flow diagram for a second illustrative exampleof the operation of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The embodiments set forth below represent the necessary information toenable those skilled in the art to practice the invention and illustratethe best mode of practicing the invention. Upon reading the followingdescription in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilledin the art will understand the concepts of the invention and willrecognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressedherein. It should be understood that these concepts and applicationsfall within the scope of the disclosure and the accompanying claims.

A communication environment 10 is illustrated in FIG. 1 to include apacket-switched network 12, such as the Internet, and circuit-switchednetworks 14, cooperating with one another via various internetwork frontends 16 to facilitate communications between the networks and variousdevices connected thereto. Those skilled in the art will recognize thatthe packet-switched network 12 may include numerous networks connectedto each other via hubs, routers, and switches to facilitatepacket-switched communications. Further, the circuit-switched networks14 will typically include the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)and a wireless circuit-switched network to facilitate traditional mobilecommunications.

The internetwork front ends 16 represent various devices capable offacilitating communications, and in particular, providing information,such as content for notifications, to circuit-switched devices served bythe circuit-switched networks 14. The internetwork front ends 16 mayinclude, but are not limited to, email servers 16A, audio browsers 16B,fax servers 16C, wireless application protocol (WAP) servers 16D, shortmessage service (SMS) servers 16E, and pager servers 16F. Each of thesedevices is configured to receive a message or other instructions from apacket-switched device on the packet-switched network 12 and deliver amessage capable of being received and processed, directly or throughintermediate devices, to circuit-switched devices on thecircuit-switched networks 14.

The email server 16A is capable of sending email to devices receivingemail via the circuit-switched networks 14. Similarly, the fax, WAP,SMS, and pager servers 16C-16F are capable of sending faxes, WAPmessages, SMS messages, and pages to corresponding devices served by thecircuit-switched networks 14. As will be described in further detailbelow, the audio browser 16B is configured to provide an audio interfacevia the circuit-switched network 14 and a corresponding packet-switchedinterface to devices in the packet-switched network 12.

Based on select criteria, the present invention is capable of deliveringinformation, such as notifications and content, to any number ofdevices, which are typically serviced by a circuit-switched network 14.These devices may include, but are not limited to, traditional land linetelephones 18, computers 20, mobile terminals, such as personal digitalassistants (PDAs) 22, mobile telephones 24, pagers 26, and the like. Inaddition to devices serviced by circuit-switched networks 14, wirelesspacket-switched devices, such as properly configured mobile telephones24, may communicate with a traditional packet-switched network 12 viawireless packet-switched networks 28. In the latter case, information iscommunicated between the wireless packet-switched device and devices onthe packet-switched network 12 without conversion to a circuit-switchedformat, such as the traditional time-division multiplexing (TDM).

In one embodiment of the present invention, an application server 30residing in the packet-switched network 12 runs a process capable ofdetermining if event and location information correspond to a predefinedprofile, which defines a notification or content to provide to a uservia a select medium when the event and location information correlate.The application server 30 may access location information from a varietyof sources, including a location server 32, which may run a processcapable of receiving or determining location information in a variety ofways.

Although the location process may run on the application server 30, aseparate service provider may be used to provide a location service.Location information may be derived from any number of sources,including global positioning system (GPS) devices, an electronic mobilelocation center (EMLC), home or visitor location registers within amobile network, or mobile terminals themselves. Depending on the desiredapplication, the location of a mobile terminal, user, associate of auser, or any other entity or individual may be used to help trigger theprovision of a notification or content to a select communication device.

Thus, the location information may pertain to the user, a user's device,or another individual device remote from the user. In essence, alocation process is used to identify the location of a defined entity.The location may be determined on a periodic basis or upon thetriggering of an event that may or may not be associated with thelocation of the entity. Those skilled in the art will recognize thenumerous location determining techniques capable of being used with thepresent invention.

A content server 34 and an event server 36 may be used to providecontent when select event and location indicia correlate with event andlocation criteria defined by a profile. The content may include any typeof information desired by a user. Notably, certain applicationsaccording to the present invention may only provide notificationsdefined in a profile or provided with an event trigger, and therefore,would not need the services of the content server 34. Further, theapplication server 30 may be configured to provide content in additionto or in lieu of that provided by the content server 34.

An event occurrence may be time based, location based, user initiated,or initiated by an external medium, such as a mobile terminal,communication control devices within the communication network, or anevent service. In one embodiment, the event service is provided by aprocess running on the event server 36.

As noted, a customized profile may be configured via the applicationserver 30 and stored in a profile database 38 that is integrated with orseparate from the application server 30. A user may log in to theapplication server 30 through any number of devices, including personalcomputer 40, to create a profile. Each profile will typically defineinformation to provide to a select device when predefined event andlocation indicia are satisfied. The information provided to the user maybe a simple notification, pre-selected content, or a combinationthereof.

A simple profile may provide predefined information when a select eventoccurs when an entity or person is identified to be at a selectlocation, in a given area, or within a certain proximity of a givenlocation. A more sophisticated profile may identify location and accesscontent to deliver to a pre-defined user device. In addition toinformation to provide to a user specifying event criteria and locationcriteria, the profile will define a delivery medium for delivering theinformation to a select user device. The information may be provided inany number of ways, including an email, telephone call, fax, a WAP push,an SMS message, a page, or any other suitable communication mediumthrough which the application server 30 can effect delivery of amessage. Another alternative would be a simple packet-switched messageto a device capable of interacting with a wireless packet-switchednetwork 28. As such, virtually any message delivery medium isapplicable.

Many of these delivery mediums will simply incorporate a server orserver process capable of interacting with the corresponding gateway orlike device capable of translating the packet-switched message into amessage capable of being transmitted over a circuit-switched network andon to a user device through the PSTN or wireless network in a text-basedformat. These servers, like the application server 30 illustrated inFIG. 2, will typically include a central processing unit (CPU) 42 havingsufficient memory 44 containing the requisite software 46 for operation.The CPU 42 is associated with a network interface 48 to facilitatepacket-switched communications with the various devices within andconnected to the packet-switched network 12.

Audible messages may be sent over circuit-switched networks 14 using theaudio browser 16B, which is illustrated in FIG. 3. In general, theapplication server 30 and audio browser 16B preferably operate in aclient-server configuration using an audio- or voice-capable markuplanguage. The audio browser 16B will interpret the markup languagecontent representing the audio message to send to a telephony user anddeliver the corresponding audio to the telephony user. If applicable,audio from the telephony user is likewise converted to content fordelivery to the application server 30. The messages sent to thetelephony user from the audio browser 16B may be pre-recorded, may begenerated in real-time based on text-to-speech conversion, or may be acombination thereof.

The voice extensible markup language (VoiceXML) is the preferred markuplanguage for interaction between the audio browser 16B and theapplication server 30. VoiceXML is an XML document schema developed bythe VoiceXML Forum, a group of organizations founded by AT&T, IBM,Lucent Technologies, and Motorola. VoiceXML facilitate web-generatedinteractions through audio, either pre-recorded or translated from textto speech, and through voice, using speech recognition. Additionalinformation on VoiceXML may be obtained from Motorola, Inc., 1303 EastAlgonquin Road, Schaumburg, Ill., 60196, or from the VoiceXML Forum,which has a web site at http://www.voicexml.org.

The audio browser 16B, which may be referred to as a voice browser, isanalogous to traditional, graphical browsers using HTML. The W3C workingdraft for “An Introduction and Glossary for the Requirement Draft VoiceBrowsers,” 23 Dec. 1999, provides additional information on voicebrowsers, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

As such, the audio browser 16B is the liaison between thecircuit-switched networks 14 and the application server 30 of thepacket-switched network 12, and operates according to a call dialogestablished by the markup language. The call dialog is preferablyprovided to the audio browser 16B in a VoiceXML web page created by theapplication server 30. The call dialog will preferably include thenecessary information to interact with the telephony user, andoptionally, establish calls to and originated by the telephony user, aswell as report the status of the call or the caller's response.

Preferably, the application server 30 will generate the necessary calldialog in a VoiceXML page and provide the page to the audio browser 16B.The audio browser 16B will execute the call dialog to controlcommunications with the telephony user via a user device, such as amobile terminal, as well as deliver audio to the mobile terminalcorresponding to the information and/or content to deliver to the user.Preferably, the call dialog provided in the form of a VoiceXML page tothe audio browser 16B provides the audio browser 16B with sufficientinstructions to carry out its translational duties and controlcommunications with the user's device to facilitate information deliveryas described herein.

Thus, the audio browser 16B provides text converted from audio to theapplication server 30 in the form of requests for web pages, and theresponding web pages may include the text to convert and send to theuser's device in an audible format. The VoiceXML pages will also includesufficient instructions to have the audio browser 16B convert incomingaudio and request subsequent pages to facilitate ongoing communicationsas desired. The call dialog provided in the VoiceXML pages mayfacilitate numerous iterations, instructions, and commands toeffectively control the audio browser 16B and the connection with theuser's device.

An audio browser 16B, which will typically include a CPU 50 associatedwith memory 52 and the requisite software 54 to control operation. TheCPU 50 is also associated with an IP network interface 56 forcommunicating with network devices, such as the application server 30. Atelephony network interface 58 is provided for interaction with thecircuit-switched networks 14, and in particular, a local exchange ormobile switching center, to facilitate circuit-switched communications.The telephony network interface 58 preferably supports a primary rateinterface (PRI), T1, or like interface, to allow the audio browser 16Bto directly communicate with telephony devices, such as a mobileterminal, via direct or wireless switching systems.

In order to recognize and inject audio, such as tones and speech, theaudio browser 16B is preferably configured with an audio or speechsynthesizer 60 and audio or speech recognition software/hardware 62. Thespeech synthesizer 60 is used to generate audio instructions andmessages for the user. Notably, the audio browser 16B may usepre-recorded audio to provide messages to the called party based oninstructions from the application server 30, or may convert textualcontent to speech. The speech recognition software/hardware 62 isconfigured to recognize speech of the user during a communicationsession, or to recognize tones, such as those generated from key pressesof a telephony device, such as a mobile terminal. As noted above, theaudio browser 16B preferably uses VoiceXML as a liaison between audio orspeech, both spoken and recognized, and the data representing the speechthat is sent to and from the application server 30. The audio browser16B may include server processes in addition to the normal clientprocesses of a traditional browser to facilitate communications with theuser.

In operation, the server process on application server 30 monitors eventtriggers and location indicia in light of criteria in existing profiles.Typically, event occurrences are identified by the application server 30receiving event triggers corresponding to the event occurrence. Uponreceiving an event trigger, profiles with a corresponding event areidentified. The identified profiles will define a location indicia,which is required in addition to the event indicia, to provide a selectnotification or content to a user.

As such, the server process will determine location indicia for thedefined entity directly or through the location server 32. If thedetermined location indicia matches that of the profile, or is within apredefined range defined by the profile, appropriate information is sentto the defined device via an appropriate internetwork front end 16 orvia the wireless packet-switched networks 28. If additional content isnecessary other than that provided in the profile or with an eventtrigger, the content server 34 may be accessed to gather additionalinformation to provide to the user via the defined medium.Alternatively, the application process may monitor location indicia, andwhen the location indicia matches that within the profile, check for anoccurrence of the predefined event. The notification process would thenfollow.

FIGS. 4 and 5 provide detailed call flows for the above-describedscenarios in a generic manner. After the description of each call flow,exemplary applications are provided. The first call flow embodimentillustrated in FIG. 4 begins with a user establishing a profile via theapplication server 30 using personal computer 40 (step 100). Asdiscussed, the profile may be stored in a profile database 38 and willdefine an event and location criteria, which must be satisfied beforenotification of the event, and additional content, if desired, areprovided to the user. As such, the application server 30 will preferablyrun an application process, which waits for the receipt of an eventtrigger. The event trigger may originate from the event server 36, otherprocesses running on the application server 30, or virtually any remotedevice, including devices associated with the user. In the latter case,a user may initiate the trigger.

At some point, the defined event will occur and provide a trigger to theapplication process running on the application server 30 (step 102). Theapplication process will check existing profiles to determine if theevent or event type is defined by one of the user profiles (step 104).If the event trigger does not correspond to any events established inany of the profiles, the event trigger may be ignored. If the eventtrigger does correspond to events defined in one or more profiles, theapplication process will request location indicia defined by therespective profiles from the location server 32 or other device,including the user device, to identify location indicia (step 106). Inresponse to the request, the location server 32 or other device, asapplicable, will provide a location indicia back to the applicationprocess (step 108), which will determine if the event and locationindicia match or otherwise correlate with the respective profiles (step110).

If the event and location indicia do not correlate, then the event maybe ignored and the application process will resume monitoring forreceipt of subsequent event triggers. If the event and location indiciaboth correlate with the profile criteria, the user is notified via adefined user device in a manner defined in the profile. As noted, theprofile may include a predefined notification and/or identify thelocation of specific content or a type of content to deliver to the userwith or as a notification of the event occurrence and the fulfillment ofthe location criteria. As such, the application process may requestcontent from the content server 34 or like content provider (step 112),which will respond by providing the requested content to the applicationprocesses running on the application server 30 (step 114).

The application process will then send the defined notification to theuser via the appropriate internetwork front end 16 (step 116), whichwill forward the notification to the appropriate user device (step 118).In wireless packet-switched networks 28, the message may be sentdirectly to the appropriate wireless, packet-switched user device.Further, the profile may be configured to provide multiple notificationsto multiple user devices, as well as devices not associated with theparticular user. For example, select events may result in thenotification of multiple family members through various types ofdevices.

An exemplary application for the illustrated call flow is to providenotification of weather conditions of interest occurring at predefinedlocations. Notably, these predefined locations may be fixed or relativeto a moving user. For example, the location indicia defined in theprofile may define the user's home, town, zip code, or the like, whichremains fixed regardless of the user's actual position. Alternatively,the profile may define the location of any trackable device, such as amobile terminal, wherein the user may request weather alerts related tothe user's actual position. Further, the location indicia may be definedas an actual location, area, or proximity to a given location or area.

For example, assume a user establishes two profiles. The first profileis arranged to send notifications of severe weather affecting herchild's school. Accordingly, the location indicia must correspond to thelocation of the child's school, and the event server may be a weatherservice cooperating with the application server 30 to provide severeweather alerts. Upon the occurrence of severe weather for any givenlocation, the event server 36 will provide a severe weather alert to theapplication process running on the application server 30. Theapplication process will identify the profile related to severe weatherand identify the location indicia. In this case, the correlation betweenthe location of the severe weather and the location indicia in theprofile are compared. If the severe weather corresponds with thelocation of the school, a notification is sent to the user. The user mayhave the notification sent via email and via a mobile phone, using anSMS message or an actual telephone call providing an audible message.

A second severe weather profile may be configured to notify the user ofsevere weather occurring at the user's location. As such, the profilewould again define severe weather alerts as well as the user's actualposition. Since the user's position will constantly change, locationinformation may be continuously or periodically gathered through anynumber of network devices, preferably corresponding to the position ofthe mobile terminals or other positioning system associated with theuser. The location information may be obtained or gathered via alocation process running on the location server 32, or alternatively, onthe application server 30. Upon the occurrence of severe weather, theapplication server 30 will receive an alert from the event server 36 andidentify the user's location. If the locations of the severe weather andthe user correlate, a notification is sent to the user via one or moredefined devices. Notably, the event trigger indicating the severeweather may include the location of the severe weather. These alerts mayalso identify the user or the user's profile to facilitate profileprocessing. Those skilled in the art will recognize various techniquesfor establishing event triggers corresponding to the occurrence ofevents as well as the monitoring or determination of location indicia.

A second illustrative example includes establishing a profile to receivenews, stock quotes, or the like while outside a given location or withina select area. For example, a person may desire to receive audible newsalerts during his commute to and from work via a mobile telephone 24.Further, the person does not want to receive news alerts outside of agiven time frame or during work, even if he has to work late. Thus, theprofile may be established to define event criteria as a time framebetween 7 A.M. and 8 A.M., and between 5 P.M. and 7 P.M. The locationcriteria may be defined to exclude the person's work location or maydefine an area covering an area outside of the place or work, covering asubstantial portion of the commute.

Accordingly, a timer process may be run on the application server 30 orthe event server 36 to provide event triggers corresponding to theperiods in which the person desires to receive the information. When theevent triggers for the time periods occur, the application process willdetermine the person's location, and provide the requested content tothe selected user device, such as the mobile telephone 24, only when theapplication process determines that the user is not at work, or iscommuting.

The application process running on the application server 30 may monitorlocation triggers, and if they satisfy a particular profile, determineif event indicia corresponding to an event occurrence is satisfied. Anexample communication flow is illustrated in FIG. 5. Initially, aprofile is established at the application server 30 using personalcomputer 40 (step 200). The application process running on theapplication server 30 may await a location server 32 or other device,including the user's mobile terminal, to initiate a location trigger,which is sent to the application process (step 202).

The application process will check existing profiles identifying theparticular location associated with the location trigger (step 204), andrequest event indicia from an event server 36 or other appropriateprocess to determine if an event has occurred that corresponds to thelocation indicia in the respective profiles (step 206). The event server36 will respond with event indicia indicating whether or not an eventhas occurred (step 208), and the application process will determine ifthe event and location indicia match the profile (step 210).

At this point, the application server 30 will request any content, ifapplicable, from a content server 34 or like content provider (step212), which will provide the requested content to the applicationprocess (step 214). The application process will then send anotification to the user as defined in the profile (steps 216 and 218).The communication flow outlined in FIG. 5 may be implemented tofacilitate the examples above wherein a location trigger is used tocheck a defined event instead of an event trigger being used to check alocation.

In yet another embodiment, the event trigger may relate to location,proximity or positioning, wherein an event may be entering or leaving adefined location matching location indicia provided in the profile. Forexample, a traveler may create a profile identifying a type of contentto provide to a user. For example, a profile may be configured tomonitor when the mobile terminal enters a defined area and providerestaurant and hotel information for the particular area. The area maybe defined geographically or may be based on available businesses, suchas hotels and restaurants, or landmarks, such as monuments. In thesecases, the event corresponds to entry into a particular location orwithin certain proximity of a defined area or point of interest, and thelocation information will closely couple with the event information.Thus, this example provides a unique combination wherein the locationinformation and the event trigger are tightly coupled. Typically, theevent is entry into a particular area or proximity to a certainlocation, and the location indicia defines a select location. Thus, theapplication process may receive a trigger that the mobile terminal hasentered a certain area and compare the entered area with the locationindicia defined in the user profile. Appropriate notification or contentmay then be provided to the user.

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modificationsto the preferred embodiments of the present invention. All suchimprovements and modifications are considered within the scope of theconcepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.

1. A method for notification comprising: a) determining an eventoccurrence; b) determining location indicia; and c) sending informationto a plurality of communication devices when the event occurrence andthe location indicia correlate with an event criteria and locationcriteria defined in a user-desired profile.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein the determining an event occurrence step comprises: a) waitingfor an event trigger signaling the event occurrence; b) identifying theuser-desired profile defining the event criteria corresponding to theevent occurrence; and c) triggering the determining the location indiciastep upon identifying the user-desired profile wherein the eventoccurrence corresponds with the event criteria.
 3. The method of claim 1wherein the determining location indicia step comprises: a) waiting fora location trigger with the location indicia; b) identifying theuser-desired profile defining the location criteria corresponding to thelocation indicia; and c) triggering the determining the event occurrencestep upon identifying the user-desired profile wherein the locationindicia corresponds with the location criteria.
 4. The method of claim 1wherein the information sent to the purality of communication devices isa notification pertaining to the event occurrence and the locationindicia.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein the information sent to thepurality of communication devices is content pertaining to the eventoccurrence or the location indicia.
 6. The method of claim 5 furthercomprising requesting the content from a remote service and receivingthe content from the remote service.
 7. The method of claim 1 whereinthe location indicia is at least one of the group consisting of anactual location, area, and proximity to a location.
 8. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the event occurrence is a weather event and the locationindicia relates to a location of a person potentially affected by theweather event.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the event occurrencerelates to a select time or period of time.
 10. The method of claim 1wherein the event occurrence is the arrival to or departure from a givenlocation, area, or proximity of an area.
 11. The method of claim 1wherein the information is sent to a front end device capable ofdelivering the information to the select communication device within thepurality of communication devices, which is at least one of the groupconsisting of a pager, computer, telephone, mobile terminal, facsimilemachine, and personal digital assistant.
 12. The method of claim 1wherein the information is sent to a front end device capable ofdelivering the information to a select communication device within theplurality of communication devices, which is configured to effectdelivery of the information in the form of at least one of the groupconsisting of a page, email, short message service message, facsimile,audio message, and packet message.
 13. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising creating the user-desired profile based on user input todefine the event occurrence and the location indicia.
 14. The method ofclaim 13 wherein the user-desired profile defines the plurality ofcommunication devices to which to send the information.
 15. The methodof claim 14 wherein the user-desired profile defines where to accesscontent to provide as the information.
 16. The method of claim 1 whereinthe event occurrence is identified by receiving a message sent from atleast one of the group consisting of a service provider, a user'scommunication device, an internal process, and an external process. 17.A system for notification comprising a communication interfaceassociated with a control system adapted to: a) determine an eventoccurrence; b) determine location indicia; and c) send information to aplurality of communication devices when the event occurrence and thelocation indicia correlate with an event criteria and location criteriadefined in a user-desired profile.
 18. The system of claim 17 wherein todetermine the event occurrence, the control system is further adaptedto: a) wait for an event trigger signaling the event occurrence; b)identify the user-desired profile defining the event criteriacorresponding to the event occurrence; and c) trigger the determiningthe location indicia step upon identifying the user-desired profilewherein the event occurrence corresponds with the event criteria. 19.The system of claim 17 wherein to determine the location indicia, thecontrol system is further adapted to: a) wait for a location triggerwith the location indicia; b) identify the user-desired profile definingthe location criteria corresponding to the location indicia; and c)trigger the determining the event occurrence step upon identifying theuser-desired profile wherein the location indicia corresponds with thelocation criteria.
 20. A computer readable medium comprising softwareconfigured to instruct a computer to: a) determine an event occurrence;b) determine location indicia; and c) send information to a plurality ofcommunication devices when the event occurrence and the location indiciacorrelate with an event criteria and location criteria defined in auser-desired profile.
 21. The computer readable medium of claim 20wherein to determine the event occurrence, the software includesinstructions to: a) wait for an event trigger signaling the eventoccurrence; b) identify the user-desired profile defining the eventcriteria corresponding to the event occurrence; and c) triggerdetermination of the location indicia upon identifying the user-desiredprofile wherein the event occurrence corresponds with the eventcriteria.
 22. The computer readable medium of claim 20 wherein todetermine the location indicia, the software includes instructions to:a) wait for a location trigger with the location indicia; b) identifythe user-desired profile defining the location criteria corresponding tothe location indicia; and c) trigger determination of the eventoccurrence upon identifying the user-desired profile wherein thelocation indicia corresponds with the location criteria.
 23. A systemfor notification comprising: a) means for determining an eventoccurrence; b) means for determining location indicia; and c) means forsending information to a plurality of communication devices when theevent occurrence and the location indicia correlate with an eventcriteria and location criteria defined in a user-desired profile.